Save $5 or more on your Verizon wireless bill

Consumerist covered this a while back, but I'm just confirming its value after having tried it out.

You can lower your cell phone bill by moving your cell phone to a state with lower taxes (unless, of course, you already live in said state). Nevada, thanks to it's gaming industry, has really low taxes - 1.14% for cell phones. As an aside, I'd like to mention that if you are road tripping, stock up on booze in Las Vegas. Not only can you buy large amounts of hard liquor at Costco, but the taxes are so low that they feel non-existent.

A few things to note: I use Verizon and don't know if this works with any other service. I don't know if Verizon will wise up to this and prevent people from doing it in the future, or if they even care. You have to use a valid Nevada address. Also, see below about my experience versus my boyfriend's experience.

Now, from Consumerist:

Apparently, Verizon ties 3 addresses to your account which can all be different. There's your BILLING address, YOUR address and your CELLPHONE'S address. The tax rate is tied to where your CELLPHONE resides which can be completely arbitrary for all they care.

My boyfriend's parents live in Las Vegas, so he changed his cell phone's address to their address. I did the same. The next month, his bill was $10 lower (he has a family plan and pays for several phone lines, so his bill is high to begin with), whereas my phone bill was the same.

So, I called Verizon again and tried to figure out why that had happened. The address change had taken, and my cell phone's address was in Las Vegas. I hemmed and hawed about my concerns, not wanting to come right out and say that I wanted lower taxes. The rep figured out what I was up to, and to my surprise and delight, helped me out by telling me that since I have paperless (online) billing, I can change ALL of my addresses to the Las Vegas one. For Verizon, your billing address for your phone does't have to match the billing address on the credit card that you pay the bill with.

Yipee! So I changed all of my addresses to Las Vegas. And saved about $5 per bill. It's not a lot, but it's a latte.

(Picture by Elizabeth Stafford)